At least 26 recruits died in the “Skelya” regiment in a few months – media

At least 26 recruits of the 425th Separate Assault Regiment “Skelya” died from late 2025 to spring 2026.

This is reported by the publication “Babel”.

It is known that most recruits died of pneumonia, cardiovascular disease, and other illnesses shortly after mobilization.

Among the dead was 34-year-old Vitaliy Saltan from Kropyvnytskyi. He was mobilized to the “Skelya” unit on January 26 and died in hospital from pneumonia on February 22.

The man was taken to the hospital when his oxygen saturation had already dropped to 75%. He died a week later.

However, the regiment insists that the medical examination was proper.

“The inspection conducted with the participation of the Land Forces did not reveal any violations,” emphasized Commander Andriy Suray.

At the same time, a representative of the Office of the Military Ombudsman, Ruslan Tsygankov, reported that during the inspection, problems with the medical support of the unit were identified.

The deceased’s family believes that they provided him with help too late.

They said that the soldier had a temperature of 40 degrees, and treatment in the unit did not yield a positive result.

The family is awaiting a re-conduct of the forensic medical examination.

Another case involves 50-year-old Dmytro Koval from Volyn. He arrived at the unit on March 6 and died in the regiment’s car on March 21. Experts have previously called the cause of death unspecified cardiomyopathy.

His wife said that during the identification, she did not even recognize her husband, as he was covered in bruises and had numerous injuries on his body.

The family claims that Dmytro hardly ate, prayed a lot, and demanded to be released.

Witnesses reported that the man was beaten and subjected to forced medical procedures.

It is known that two medics from the unit with the call signs “Satan” and “Box”, as well as the head of the “Sych” training ground, may have been involved in the abuse of him. These men did not contact law enforcement officers, as they themselves are in the SZCH.

The unit denies all allegations. Suraj said the unit has no data to support these allegations.

Also, the first examination did not reveal any signs of violent death.

32-year-old Volodymyr Tsukanov from the Mykolaiv region was mobilized to “Skel” on January 15, and on February 11 he died in the hospital.

The immediate cause of death was indicated as pulmonary and cardiac failure, but the forensic medical examination also recorded blunt chest trauma and multiple rib fractures.

According to Babel, Tsukanov was in “Skel” from January 15 to 20, and the next day he, along with more than 40 recruits, was sent to the 1st Separate Assault Regiment named after Dmytro Kotsiubayl.

“Skel” claims that Tsukanov was injured when he tried to leave the unit without permission, climbed a pine tree, and then fell from it. According to the regiment commander Andriy Surai, the recruit was taken to the hospital immediately after the fall, and no one beat him at the training ground.

In particular, according to the publication, complaints about “Skelya” began to appear at the end of 2025, when the unit was already being scaled from a battalion to a regiment.

The unit itself claims that 26 deaths are not many for such a large formation.

The Office of the Military Ombudsman stated that there were more deaths in the regiment.

In addition, “Skel” says that the command does not ignore problematic cases and responds to them when it receives relevant information.

Regiment spokesman Oleksiy Bratuschak told Babel that the unit commander is trying to prevent such stories from happening, and if they do happen, to clarify the circumstances and punish the guilty.

Also follow “Pryamim” on Facebook , X , Telegram , and Instagram.